Glass Animals Frontman Dave Bayley Discusses the Band’s Latest Album and Life on the Road

Stephanie Hernandez

Oxford indie rockers Glass Animals have been causing quite a stir. Made up of four childhood friends, these Brit’s perchance for mixing catchy lyrics with wonderfully orchestrated melodies caught the attention of English super producer Paul Epworth (Adele, Florence + The Machine, Friendly Fires), who signed them to his personal label Wolf Tone Records. With industry backing and notable performances at this year’s SXSW and “Late Night With David Letterman,” the group have finally made it in America. Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley took the time out of the group’s busy tour schedule to sit down with Entertainment Voice and talk about the release of their debut album “Zaba,” how insomnia can be a powerful writing tool and the perils of San Francisco.

The members of the band grew up together in Oxford, how and when did you all decide to start making music together? And what is the meaning behind the group’s name?

We all went to school together, and were those kind of kids at the school that went to see weird bands that our classmates didn’t listen to. Small bands that were playing at the local clubs in Oxford, from LCD Soundsystem to the Arctic Monkeys in their early days, we would introduce each other to new music. We never actually thought about making any music together, despite all of that, even though we were all musicians (laughs). We just wanted to see bands together.  Then I went off to university for a bit, had some spare time and wrote a couple of songs and sent them to the dudes. They liked them and told me to put them online, it started getting attention and I was like, “you guys have gotten me into some deep trouble here. I don’t know what to do, we have to start a live show and you guys have to be in the band because you made me do this!” Yup, that was it! And, as far as the name, oh God we had some ridiculous names on the list, I’m talking really bad names. We went back to the first name anyone had written down, and it was Glass Animals, and it sort of just fit the music we were making at the time. That first demo tape with two tracks on it, sounded quite fragile and quite delicate, but at the same time it had this kind of animalistic base. It is important [a band’s name], I don’t know how it suits us, it is quite weird, but it’s ours now.

How would you describe your sound? What does your writing process look like?

Well, you’ve asked the wrong person. That’s like trying to describe your own personality or something, you can make suggestions of what your personality might be like based on what other people have said to you, but ultimately someone else is going to be a much better judge of that. But, biased opinion here, it sounds like me, I don’t know. Someone says it sounds like Dr. Dre made by some Oxford kids. People always bring up pineapples when talking about our music for some reason, so maybe Dr. Dre holding a pineapple is what it sounds like?

The process varies a bit, but the first album was  predominantly started with pieces I had made in my bedroom very late at night, I had a bit on insomnia when I was at university. I started off listening to music to fall asleep basically, and that turned into me experimenting with synths and things and making beats. A lot of the songs were first off just little pieces, small productions and soundscapes that progressed from there and I would build on it through the course of the night. I’d gather the parts and put a groove into it, add little details, some flourish and that was how the first album was made. The second album is starting off in a very different way I think.

You are signed to Wolf Tone records. How has the transition from being independent, self-releasing artists to musicians signed to a major label been? How has the switch impacted the music you create?

I honestly don’t believe it has impacted it that much. We chose a label based on, basically how comfortable we felt with the people who were going to be guiding us through the process of releasing an album. We were very new to the music industry, none of us knew anyone in the business, none of us had ever been in bands before. A lot of bands that are around today have done well because they’ve been in groups that have failed in the past and they’ve learned from that. We didn’t have anything like that to go on, all we had to go on was whether or not we liked people and felt comfortable around them and thought they were good people; and would then let us do whatever we wanted to creatively. So I honestly think the label changed what we did or what kind of music we made. The one thing that it helped with, is it helps facilitate the music, they lent us equipment and that sort of thing.

You just released your debut album “Zaba” in the United States, what was the inspiration behind the album?

There are lots of inspirations on the album, lots of the lyrics are stories I’ve heard. I used to work as a medical student, and I used to be really interested in psychiatry and I was training to become a psychiatrist before I took the massive detour of becoming a musician (laughs). So I met lots of really interesting people, lots of patients, with interesting stories, very bizarre stories. I spent a lot of my life trying to see the world through their eyes, which is a very strange thing to do. So a lot of the lyrics, are about that, seeing the world through someone else’s eyes and different perspectives on the world.  A lot of other inspiration came from films and books I was reading at the time. I had this obsession at the time with films and books about people going off into unknown territory, books like “The Island of Dr. Moreau” where a man finds himself stranded on a desert island, “Heart of Darkness” where people take their friends and family out into the tropics and find all these weird creatures there. The album is made up of soundscapes that try to capture the atmosphere of those books and that tropical wilderness.

You recently played “Late Night With David Letterman,” what did the preparation look like for that show?

Preparation? Yeah, there was no preparation to be honest. The main preparation was bringing lots of giant palm trees into the Letterman studio, which really confused him. I don’t think he knew what to expect when the music came out. We sound checked at like 6 in the morning, and then you just wait and wait and wait in the studio and hang around with his musicians and they come and get you 30 seconds before you go on. The show is being made live, so you’re actually sitting, watching in your dressing room, and throughout the whole show they’re saying, “Later Glass Animals are going to be playing,” and a few minutes pass and “next up Glass Animals.” You’re just building up the anticipation.

Now that you’re gaining popularity, you are playing to much larger audiences and in larger venues. Which do you enjoy more, playing to mass crowds or more intimate shows?

I like them both for different reasons. We just played a really small show in Manhattan at a place called the Box. It was a very special show, a very special venue. It was really intimate, I think there were only about 300 people there. A small secret show, and that was very fun. We haven’t played a show like that in a while. You can really feed off the energy of the crowd at shows like that, you can see people’s faces, you can have a laugh with them. It’s more personal. The bigger shows are great too, you can bring big stage productions, bring a cool light show, you can really set the atmosphere of the entire venue if you want to. It’s a different type of energy for each show, but they’re both brilliant.

Why do you perform live in socks?

(Laughs) yeah, there are kind of two reasons for that. First reason, is that it does make me feel more comfortable, it makes me feel like I’m at home. And the second reason for me, is that a lot of stages these days are made of plastic, and when you sort of jump around on plastic stages in shoes it builds up the static electricity and as soon as I touch the microphone It electrocutes me! I don’t know why, something between the soles of your shoes and the material, so I started taking my shoes off. And the other guys in the band, Ed and Drew, who play synths and guitars, they’ve taken their shoes off too. They’re actually playing organs really, they’re playing pedals with their feet as well. So they have two keyboards visible to the crowd and then some foot pedals that are basically another piano that they play with their feet and they need to be able to feel their way around and such.

You have been on tour for quite a while now, do you have any particularly funny road stories you’d care to share?

So much weird stuff, I can’t even keep track (laughs). Some of it’s a bit rude, so I’ll try to tell another story.

By all means tell the rude one, why not?

Yeah? OK! So we were in San Francisco, sunny day in the city. Me, Drew, Ed and Joe are walking and we basically hear these foot steps coming up behind us (laughs). We turn around and there’s a man there, he starts sort of just touching…. stroking, Drew. And, he starts saying, “Hey honey, hey I love you, you’re so beautiful.” And, Drew goes completely red (laughs). And then, I think he felt something against his leg and this man was not wearing trousers or underpants, just a skimpy T-shirt. So Drew runs away and this guy with no clothes and dreadlocks chases after him yelling, “I’m going to miss you honey!” It was so funny, this story does not do it justice.

What can new fans who have not seen you live expect from the shows on this tour?

It generally depends on the show, we’ve done some shows where we get there and it’s a definite party atmosphere. So we’ll change the sound a little bit, we extend the groove sections of the songs, loosen the bass, bring down the ambient stuff, and up the tempos. We’ve done other shows where the venue is incredibly beautiful and people are in quite a serious mood for some reason, and we will play a calmer more ambient show, and slow it down. It depends from show to show, but we are bringing some new staging and new set design elements that should be fun to play around with, new lighting; we are always trying to mix it up and keep it different every time.

Glass Animals are on tour now, and will perform Sept. 24 at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, CA.